With "Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald" performing less than expected, "Venom" is gradually receding, and this week's introduction film market is undoubtedly the world of "Invincible Destruction King 2: The Internet" and "Agent Bean 3".
From the box office and word-of-mouth prospects, "Invincible Destruction King 2" is far stronger than "Agent Bean 3".
But in the box office space left for "Douye", I still believe that it can complete its "share" task, or even better.
Speaking of why, it's a long story.
Author | Lodi
1, we don't necessarily look at it, parents may like it
The optimism about the box office of "Agent Bean 3" is of course limited, but this limit is not narrow.
First of all, its appearance will fill a big gap in this month's film market: middle-aged and elderly audiences.
After all, the recognition of "Mr. Bean" as a comedy IP spans the Chinese audience from the post-60s to the post-90s.
At that time, when watching the VCD and local stations play the "Mr. Bean" series of short dramas on a loop, in addition to us, there were also parents around us who couldn't close up.
When The figure of Rowan Atkinson is well known to all Chinese, the comedy movies starring him also have more opportunities to "land".
On September 12, 2003, "Detective Case" met with Chinese mainland audience in theaters as a sub-account film, 5 months after the British premiere.
Compared to this awkward translation, everyone still uses to call it "Agent Bean", even if Agent Johnny English and Mr. Bean are two beans.
The film finally ranked 30th in the 2003 mainland film box office with a box office performance of 7.9 million yuan.
It looks inconspicuous, but think of the imported masters of that year, in addition to the "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and the "Matrix" series of the last two, there are "Finding Nemo", "Terminator 3", "Lord of the Rings 2: The Two Towers", "Stealing the Day", "Getting Away with It", "X-Men 2"...
Now I think it is not a small credit, and the hard work is even greater.
Later, the "Mr. Bean" movie "Golden Week of Bean" was also introduced to the mainland in 2007.
Due to its early age, "The Great Disaster of Mr. Bean" (1997), which could not be introduced, landed on CCTV-6, local television stations, long-distance buses, and DVD markets in those years, and captured the attention of mainland audiences.
Its Chinese mainland golden signboard effect has also added a lot of Chinese elements to 2011's "Agent Bean 2".
Although it was unable to introduce Chinese mainland due to its subject matter, it also maintained the attention of mainland audiences with its online downloads.
Even when the 1994 British romantic comedy "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was widely circulated in Chinese mainland, a big reason was that "this film has a bean!" ”
Chinese's brand recognition of "Bean" has been maintained at a relatively stable stage.
This also gave rise to our expectations for the box office performance of Agent Bean 3:
The volume of sound may not be large, but the inherent audience group is also enough to "make up a knife" behind hollywood blockbusters in the same period.
After all, "Operation Red Sea" at the beginning of the year also gave us a glimpse of the power of middle-aged and elderly audiences in the composition of the box office.
The possibility of "Agent Bean 3", in the final analysis, lies in the most basic point of the series, which has always maintained the standard.
That's the lead actor Rowan Atkinson himself.
A comedic performance composed of rich body movements and eye-catching expressions, as a highly expressive language, can cross the ocean and even ignore cultural differences.
Even in the highly regional British culture, Mr. Bean can be completely "out of place", whether it is a large supermarket "contemporary consumerism scene", or the queen driving to the horn to play flowers, it does not affect his facial features to run around and commit crimes.
Like his idol, the French comedy guru Jacques Tati, Atkinson portrays a "strange man" with silent body language, but it is far more exaggerated than the "natural stay" of the old French gentleman's leisurely leisure.
At the same time, his work rarely exists in "Yes, Chancellor", "Black Jazz" in the "only English people know best" old terrier, and dense serial mouth cannons.
Some people may say that he is "low-level", but this "low threshold" and "no compulsion" have always represented the other side of British comedy:
Between the "sullen spit" and the "yellow storm carnival", the arrogance flutters, between pretending to be silly and sneering, maintaining a cross-context friendly scale.
The performance at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games proved that he was not necessarily idol, but it must be icon
This made Chinese on the other side of the ocean quickly accept his existence in the late 90s, so that Atkinson came to China to participate in "Happy Comedians" and "I Am an Actor", which is still considered to be a manifestation of the "tall" and "international" of mainland variety shows.
After all, Chinese has long been a tradition for foreign comedies to "recognize brands and watch series".
2, foreign comedy in China, brushing the face is more important than anything
In the 1920s, Shanghai, full of "Western film and opera", was undoubtedly the "Chinese film capital" at that time.
There are several foreign "funny kings" in the hearts of Shanghai audiences: Zhuo Beilin, Pei Si Kaiden, Roque, Laurel and Hatai.
"Peisi Kaiden" is the comedy master Buster Keaton that we often refer to today, and the translated name can be said to be very pidgin;
The word "Roark" is not like Harold Lloyd's syllable, all because of lloyd's early starring in the silent film "Lonesome Luke" series, everyone took the character name as a personal name.
Jackie Chan: I told you that there is really gravity in the world
These two are taking the "slow half-beat" cold-faced smiley craftsman route, coupled with the thrilling performances in the sky, the influence has spread to Jackie Chan movies.
Chaplin's comedy with tears in his laughter is perfectly in line with the "shadow drama" viewing needs of Chinese.
The funny of Lauley and Hatai being fat and thin, singing and harmonizing has also become a metaphor for Shanghainese people to "difficult brothers and difficult brothers".
Their most famous work, "Children of the Desert", has been translated as "Afraid of Wife" in China (picture from the poster light box in the exhibition area on the fourth floor of the Shanghai Film Museum
In those days, the brand of comedy movies really penetrated into the life of the lane.
At that time, the actor's own brand effect was inseparable from the IP of the series of comedies.
Among these "actor brands", except for Harold Lloyd, who lost the Chinese market due to the "insult to China incident of the film "Not Afraid of Death"", the works of the rest have become hollywood hard currency in the Republic of China period.
The process of selecting Chinese brand also constitutes its own comedy viewing habits:
For example, the preference for "juggling" action comedies, such as the high reputation of realistic "tragicomedy".
However, with the founding of New China, the ever-changing international relations and domestic policies have turned the history of "what to see and what to buy" into "what to see."
From the reform and opening up to the implementation of the film accounting system in 1994, this period of "what to see" was the "best time" for Chinese audiences to foreign comedy series.
In 1982, Chinese audiences discovered that the cinema was filled with a japanese idle man with a big face, small eyes, a crooked top hat, and chattering.
The fifth in the series " The Suffering of Men " Directed by Yoji Yamada " , Chinese called "The Story of Injiro " .
Unlike the gags and jokes of silent comedies, Injiro's idle footprints are always hovering between home and the road.
I also met some parents short, my sister married, my nephew rebelled, and I met a lonely old woman... And, of course, the "standard ending" of every time you lose love.
In those years, Japanese audiences gradually developed the "folklore" of going to the cinema every New Year and Obon Festival to see the "square-faced Ain".
For Chinese, who have been increasingly open and mobile after the reform and opening up, Ah Yin this guy looks like every small village compound has a second mix.
This outfit has almost become the standard portrait of "Ah Yin" Atsumi Kiyoshi's life
Subsequently, the mainland successively introduced the 27th "Love of Waves", the 32nd "Whistling Injiro", the 36th "The Story of Injiro - Shiba And love", the 9th "Shiba and Love", the 39th "The Story of Injiro" (the introduction of the translation "The Adventure of Finding Mother"), and the 41st "Injiro's Mental Journey", a total of 8 films.
At the same time, the figure of another French comedian, Louis de Finés, has also been remembered by a generation of Chinese audiences.
The war comedy "Tiger's Mouth Out of Danger", the professional comedy "Gourmet" (the introduction of the translation of the name "Good Man or The Breed"), the ethical comedy "Husband and Wife Mayor" (the introduction of the translation of the name "Joyful Enemy"), all make people remember this wrinkled little old man.
To this day, "Tiger's Mouth" is still "lying" in the top ten of the number of moviegoers in France, (right for Louis de Finés)
At that time, the comedy series and brands, the overall theme tended to be lifelike, partial to the cultural background, and still seemed to exclude the "low-level fun" juggling action comedy -
The only exception may be the Japanese action comedy Katayama Criminal Police series (formerly known as Criminal Story).
But in the era of dividing the accounts, those who should come back still come back.
In 1998, the introduction of "Rush Hour" was like Jackie Chan's homecoming in Hollywood.
Everyone suddenly found that the hip-hop Uncle Dragon suddenly got serious, and the contrast between the talking Chris Parker and the good looks were still good.
The introduction of the second part, so it is logical.
The French comedy series "Taxi Express", which is not lowly famous in China, finally broke into the mainland big screen in the fourth part under the name of "Taxi 4".
In 2018, the box office of the fifth part of the series of 31.208 million yuan also brought a week of vitality to the somewhat sluggish summer slot.
After all, being able to see fists, bullets, and strips flying together with one ticket is always more attractive to the audience.
3, action comedy is the mainstream, instability factors still exist
At least, judging from the trend in recent years, the comedy brand of the introduction of the film still has a certain appeal.
But there are still limits to how optimistic we are today about the box office of "Agent Bean 3".
The first thing that can be determined is that the box office of comedy import films over the years has indeed been very limited.
If the 61.718 million box office performance of "My Spy Ex-Boyfriend" this year is good, and the 14.991 million of "Wang Xing Undercover" is unsatisfactory, then the "Mamma Mia 2" with a big IP "angry" 4.146 million can only be called a tragedy.
2016's "Single Diary: A Good Pregnancy Strikes", even with the blessing of the well-known Mary Sue IP "BJ Single Diary", plus the popularity of "Uncle Face" Colin Firth, finally only 5.501 million box office.
In contrast, action comedies such as "My Spy Ex-Boyfriend" are still "firm".
But this kind of action comedy, to face a stronger enemy than one.
First of all, the audience of old comedy IP such as "Bean" is gradually "aging".
The inevitable reason is that in addition to the "audience is getting old", there is also an increasingly rich variety of imported film markets.
Behind it, there are also changes in the production mode of Hollywood blockbusters:
When Marvel took the lead, the proportion of humor in action blockbusters increased indefinitely, and the boundaries of "action comedy" became more and more blurred.
At the same time, the "adultization" of the box office predator type of cartoons is also competing for audiences who love to listen to the strips and love to release their imagination.
Not to mention That there are Xu Zheng's "囧" series, and local comedy brands such as Happy Twist, which maintain the "unlimited" box office appeal with a more down-to-earth attitude.
Under various shocks, Hollywood producers will inevitably concentrate their superior forces and, to a certain extent, reduce the impact of the veteran comedy series on the Chinese market.
Not to mention the future, just to say that "Agent Bean 3" released this week may not be particularly bad at the box office, but if you want to "go out of the circle again", you may really need a miracle.
(The box office data in the text comes from the professional version of Maoyan, and the introduction data of "The Story of Yinjiro" comes from the Douban netizen DaqiDoulie "Chinese mainland the introduction of Japanese films and co-productions", and Daqi himself and @Movie Watchman Yu Yong also contributed to this article.) ）